Our wine mystery keeps traveling the world to Dubai, Hong Kong, Bordeaux and Portugal uncovering motives and phylloxera intrigue. Malcolm, Corvina and Brian uncover a remedy developed for a phylloxera outbreak before the outbreak breaks out. Tres suspicious! There are also shadowy investors buying patents for this remedy that would have no value until those nasty little aphids are put into action destroying the vineyards of the world. Can our heroes get to the root cause and save the world’s wine from phylloxera? Listen to this second podcast to find out. What we can tell you without spoiling the novel, is that when phylloxera actually decimated wine crops around the world in the late 1800s one Texas man, Thomas (T.V.) Munson, was hailed as the conquering hero for developing over 300 disease resistant grape rootstocks that were grafted into the world’s grapevines to make them phylloxera resistant. He is truly an unsung hero, so we lift our glasses to him today…filled with lovely Texas wine of course! We are saluting Munson’s passion for viticulture with two more William Chris wines: a 2020 Artist’s Blend Red, made with four single vineyard Rhone style grapes, and Black Jacques, a red dessert wine made in the Madeira style. The Artist’s Blend brings the character of all the grapes combined to create a peppery, smoky, fruity red that coats the drinker’s mouth. The Black Jacques, on the other hand, is sweet, caramelly and balanced, like a heat-soaked version of an ice wine. Enjoy!